Weekly Report - 06 December 2018 (WR-18-48)

VENEZUELA: Turkey offers rhetorical support

“We will cover most of Venezuela’s needs…we have that capacity.” With these words Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pledged his country’s economic and political support for the government led by President Nicolás Maduro during an official visit to Venezuela this week. Much like Venezuela, Turkey is also currently wrestling with an economic crisis marked by rampant inflation and a loss of confidence in the domestic currency. But both Maduro and Erdoğan were keen to project that bilateral economic cooperation could help overcome their problems. Whether either will be in a position to bail out the other is a moot point and cooperation could be designed to give each leader a little more breathing space.